BEIRUT, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Nearly 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon as Israeli occupation forces continue intensive air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern regions of the country, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
The organization warned that civilians are paying a heavy price for the escalating violence, noting that around 200,000 of the displaced are children and adolescents now living under extremely harsh conditions.
UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, expressed shock at the scale of attacks affecting civilians, saying that “children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate.”
The agency stressed that the ongoing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and the severe toll on children are a cause for grave concern.
According to the latest figures released by Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on Sunday, at least 83 children have been killed among 394 people who have been martyred in Israeli attacks since 2 March, while at least 254 children were among the 1,130 people wounded during the same period.
Lebanese health authorities say the war has so far claimed the lives of more than 500 people, including at least 83 children and 42 women, since the latest confrontation began. The death toll has averaged nearly 100 citizens per day.
Beigbeder said thousands of families who fled the bombardment are now sleeping in overcrowded and cold shelters, describing the figures as stark evidence of the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Lebanon.
Many displaced residents from Beirut’s southern suburbs have been forced to sleep in Martyrs’ Square and on nearby streets in the Lebanese capital after Israeli evacuation threats pushed residents to abandon their homes.
With the number of displaced people rapidly rising, public facilities across Beirut have been converted into emergency shelters. The Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, the country’s largest sports complex, has become a temporary refuge for hundreds of families.
Inside the stadium, displaced families are living in tents and relying heavily on humanitarian aid such as clothing and winter jackets to cope with the severe cold.
Israeli occupation forces continue to issue evacuation orders for residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as large areas of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region.
Many Lebanese view the orders as an attempt to forcibly displace civilians, destroy towns and villages, and use the population as leverage in the war, raising fears that the country could face a prolonged humanitarian crisis surpassing those seen in previous conflicts.
UNICEF also reported that over the past 28 months at least 329 children have been killed and 1,632 injured in Lebanon. In the past six days alone, the number of child casualties increased by 25 percent, bringing the tragic total to 412 children martyred.
